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Fog bows over Summit Station, Greenland
A series of fog bows over the National Science Foundation's (NSF) mobile science facility (MSF) at Summit Station, Greenland. Fog bows are similar to rainbows but lack brilliant colors because they are caused by smaller liquid water droplets than those in a typical rain cloud. This particular fog bow was caused by a super-cooled liquid water cloud near the surface.
MSF houses ICECAPS (Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state, and Precipitation at Summit), an atmospheric science project supported by NSF (under grants ARC 08-56773, ARC 09-04152 and ARC 08-56559) as part of NSF's developing Arctic Observing Network (AON) program. AON encompasses physical, biological and human observations--including indigenous knowledge--of the land, ocean and atmosphere. Data from AON will enable the interagency, U.S. government initiative, the Study of Environmental Arctic Change, to get a handle on a wide-ranging series of significant and rapid changes occurring in the Arctic. The photographer who took this picture was supported under NSF grant ARC 12-40700, as a supplementary educational activity and distance learning project to ICECAPS.
To learn more, see NSF press release Thin, low arctic clouds played an important role in widespread 2012 Greenland ice sheet melt. (Date of Image: July 2012)
Credit: Dr. Brant G. Miller, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Idaho
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